I watched the movie Limitless recently and it got me thinking.
A novelist has writer’s block. Every time he sits down in front of that blinking cursor, he’s stuck.
His house is a mess, filled with empty beer bottles and pizza boxes, and he’s badly in need of a shower and a haircut.
He meets his ex-brother-in-law, a former drug dealer, and reluctantly reveals his plight.
“Take this,” he says, handing him a small white pill. “And thank me later.”
Without knowing what the pill will do, the writer swallows it down.
Twenty minutes later the world has slowed to crystal clear brilliance.
He assembles obscure details from the past to pacify and lure into the bed the landlord’s wife, cleans his entire apartment, and writes the first draft of his novel overnight.
He is able to access every part of his brain, every memory, and optimize it.
It’s an enticing thought — take a pill, unleash infinite creativity.
“One tablet a day and I was limitless.”
My friend recommended this movie to me and said, “I’ve had those moments of flow. And now I just can’t get it back.”
The Magic Formula For Being You
I love the premise of this movie, not because of the fantasy, but because I believe it’s possible.
In fact, it seems to me that we’re always plugged into that infinite creative potential.
We just don’t know it.
So many of us entrepreneurs are searching for the white pill to unleash our creative genius.
We hunt for it in online courses. We hire marketing coaches to teach us. We read and reread the business Bibles and follow the system du jour.
All the while not realizing…
You are always plugged in.
The only thing that stops you from knowing it is the storm of thinking keeping you from knowing what you know.
Creating from that place of divine inspiration is natural, but it doesn’t come instantaneously from a pill or following a magic formula.
You can’t think your way into inspiration.
But inspiration is your natural state of being.
You can’t force your way to genius.
But genius is what you’re made of.
You can’t use thinking to solve a problem created by thinking.
But you can get quiet and listen until you know.
Sometimes I was kicking in your genius superpowers was as simple as turning on a light switch.
Some days I long for a morning ritual that guarantees consistent access to creativity.
You can eat the right superfoods, do the prescribed meditations, spend an hour every day on your yoga mat…and still not get hit with that bolt of lightning.
More often than not, I’m grateful for the adventure of courting the fickle muse of inspiration. Because as much as I might live in fear that she will never revisit me, she inevitably always does.
My job in creativity seems pretty simple.
Step 1 – Ask a question.
Step 2 – Wait and listen.
Step 3 – Act on what I know. If you don’t know, go back to Step 2.
Step 4 – Repeat infinitely.
You don’t need a magic pill to be what you already are.
What’s required is letting go of the thinking that obscures the connection you always have.
A modification of a quote attributed to a Zen master:
“Genius is a happy accident; practice makes us more accident prone.”
The “practice” is doing whatever comes to us to do. The fun part is that it may change from day to day.
And some days, that practice is showing up in front of the blinking cursor and writing, even when you don’t (think you) have anything to say.
Stop trying to force the current to flow where you want it; relax and ride it to exactly where you’re supposed to be.
Yours in creative play,
Steph
P.S. Are you ready to ask for (and receive) your limitless genius?
If you are:
- Already successful in business and ready to go bigger online with high-end offers, courses, retreats, a book (or two)
- Inspired with a BIG vision for what you’d like to create or ready to explore it
- Frustrated by doing what the “experts” say because it doesn’t feel like YOU
- Looking for a guide, mentor and intuitive to help you create bigger than you’ve dared to dream before — in a way that’s authentically soul aligned…
Let’s have a virtual coffee and Wild Creation conversation and explore what’s possible!
